Customer Reviews:
Offers great early insight into recent Russian developments.......1999-10-11
In the tradition of Lewin, Jowitt and Lane Von Laue offers insight where others have failed
Book Description
Bourdieu's Secret Admirer in the Caucasus is a gripping account of the developmental dynamics involved in the collapse of Soviet socialism. Fusing a narrative of human agency to his critical discussion of structural forces, Georgi M. Derluguian reconstructs from firsthand accounts the life story of Musa Shanib—who from a small town in the Caucasus grew to be a prominent leader in the Chechen revolution. In his examination of Shanib and his keen interest in the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, Derluguian discerns how and why this dissident intellectual became a nationalist warlord.
Exploring globalization, democratization, ethnic identity, and international terrorism, Derluguian contextualizes Shanib's personal trajectory from de-Stalinization through the nationalist rebellions of the 1990s, to the recent rise in Islamic militancy. He masterfully reveals not only how external economic and political forces affect the former Soviet republics but how those forces are in turn shaped by the individuals, institutions, ethnicities, and social networks that make up those societies. Drawing on the work of Charles Tilly, Immanuel Wallerstein, and, of course, Bourdieu, Derluguian's explanation of the recent ethnic wars and terrorist acts in Russia succeeds in illuminating the role of human agency in shaping history.
Book Description
The second edition of Politics in the European Union builds on the comprehensiveness and accessibility of the first, remaining an authoritative introduction to the nature of the European Union and the process of European integration. Clearly divided into four parts, covering the theory and history of European integration, and the institutions and policies of the European Union, this text combines current academic debates with empirical data and offers a significantly expanded and more diverse discussion of EU theories than the previous edition. It addresses all of the most important new developments in EU Politics, such as the adoption of a Constitution for the EU; the enlargement of EU membership to incorporate ten new Member States; the elections to the European Parliament; and the nomination of a new European Commission. The book also contains enhanced pedagogical features that are focused on the needs of student and is supported by an Online Resource Centre Online Resource Centre: For lecturers: essay questions, figures and tables, seminar questions and activities and an in-depth examination of some of the key member states. For students: map of Europe flashcard glossary, multiple choice questions, interactive timeline and web links.
Customer Reviews:
Looks nice but not always reliable.......2006-10-13
Beware of mistakes in this book! Some of them concern elementary things and can easily confuse the readers, especially beginners. To give an example, at page 236, discussing the QMV the authors state that the number of votes required for an adoption of a proposal from the Commission 'as of first of January 2005' is 258 and the majority of of the members voting in favour. In Article 205 of the EC Treaty we read that 232 votes in favour are needed.
Such small mistakes spoil the impression made by the book very much.
well written introduction - and nice to look at as well.......2002-07-22
George and Bache provide a very readable and informative overview of all the main questions connected with the EU. The layout is particularly well done and enhances the effectiveness of the text.
The authors start with a discussion of the main actors in the EU (Commission, Council, Parliament, Commitee of the Regions and Economic and Social Commitee) but also include such timely topics as the question of legitimacy or the concept of multilevel governance and other theoretical approaches to European integration. A separate chapter focuses on organised interests.
In part 2 the authors provide a well-structured overview of relevant policy areas. All in all, this book can be recommended as a well written introduction to European (EU) studies.
Book Description
A substantially revised and updated new edition of this highly-successful and ground-breaking text which analyzes the EU as a political system using the methods of comparative political science.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent College Upper Division Text.......2006-01-17
This would make a great text for an upper division class on the EU or on comparative legislative politics. I am very impressed with its theoretical sophistication with the inclusion of simple spatial models that make its content comparable with a book such as Krehbiel's _Pivotal Politics_.
Too wordy.......2000-10-31
This book is for someone who has a pretty decent knowledge of the EU and of the governmental process. The book is crammed with information but is WORDY and Hix is a bit long winded at times. He provides a lot of references to other political theorists with whom the reader should be familiar with before he or she tries to dive into this text. I found it to be nice to read as a follow up text on the EU rather than reading it on its own.
The Political System of The European Union.......2000-05-22
In the preface to 'The Political System of the European Union' the author articulates that the central aim of the book is to provide an extensive review of the recent 'explosion' of empirical and theoretical literature, concentrating on the European Union's (EU) decision making and policy process. This aim is fulfilled admirably, in a comprehensive and accessible manner. The book begins by examining the EU system of Government. However, the conventional approach of examining separately each of the governing institutions is rejected in favour of examining in turn, the Executive (Council of Ministers and Commission), Legislature (European Parliament) and Judiciary (European Court of Justice). This classification not only increases parsimony, but also allows for the 'importation' of a wider body of political science literature in which the theories of governance have been developed to an extent far beyond those seen in the sub-field of European Studies. The book subsequently turns its attention to the politics of the EU, concentrating on public opinion, parties and interest representation. Drawing extensively on recent work by Mathew Gabel, and through original analysis of Eurobarometer data, a detailed picture is provided of the stratification of support for EU integration throughout European society. One major conclusion is made - the European issue cuts across the traditional left-right dimension - encouraging Europe's main political parties to play down the European issue in domestic competition. The consequences of this conclusion are analysed in the context of the EU's 'nascent political parties' and the prospects for majoritarian democracy - prospects which Hix concludes are extremely limited. In many respects this last point captures the essence of what Hix is attempting to convey in conceptualising the EU as a political system. For despite the author's initial claims, this book represents far more than a literature review. It represents an attempt to transfer the study of the EU from the paradigm of International Relations to the mainstream of Political Science. This has lead to the misperception that 'The political system of the EU' down plays the 'rogue' nature of the EU in comparison to other political systems. It does not. And the point is made clearly that the European Union is a political system but not a state. Amongst its many strengths, one weakness reoccurs. The book investigates and explains the EU using predominantly North American political science literature. In certain respects this is its strength: as in the transposition of US Congess literature onto the European Parliament. However, in other respects, where European literature would provide a valuable comparative framework, such literature is absent. Such a focus can be excused perhaps as a necessary counterbalance to the many 'Eurocentric' volumes on the EU. In 'The Political System of the European Union', Hix has produced an accessible and much needed literature review, whilst making a persuasive case for a change in the paradigm and methods of EU studies. It is for this latter reason that the book will become a seminal text.
Book Description
Governing with Judges elaborates a theory of constitutional politics, the process through which the discursive practices and techniques of constitutional adjudication come to structure the work of governments, parliaments, judges, and administrators. Focusing on the cases of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the European Union, the book examines the sources and consequences of the pan-European movement to confer constitutional review authority on a new governmental institution, the constitutional court. Detailed case studies illustrate how and to what extent legislative processes have been placed under the influence of constitutional judges. In a growing number of policy domains, these judges function as powerful, adjunct legislators. As constitutional courts have consolidated their position as authoritative interpreters of the constitutional law, and especially of human rights provisions, the work of the judiciary, too, has gradually been constitutionalised. Today, ordinary judges seek to detect violations of the constitution in their application of the various codes, and to rewrite statutes that they deem unconstitutional. Constitutional politics have not only provoked the demise of traditional notions of parliamentary sovereignty, they have organized profound transformations in the very nature of European governance. Stone Sweet argues that constitutional adjudication constructs complex causal linkages between rule systems and normativity, on the one hand, and the strategic behaviour of individuals, on the other. The theory constitutes a novel synthesis of normative and rational approaches to politics. The book also addresses central questions raised by a wide range of ongoing theory projects, including the 'new institutionalism,'rational choice, principal-agent theories of delegation, and the new constitutionalism in Continental legal theory.
Customer Reviews:
The Best Explanation for the European Court's Power.......2003-12-09
For Stone Sweet, initially, diplomatic representatives of member state governments bargain rationally to create institutions that begin to take on a life of their own, eventually resembling those of a domestic polity. Thus, Stone Sweet shows how theories of international relations and intergovernmentalism become less and less relevant to the European Union, as the reach of EU law grows. Because any explanation for the power of the European Court of Justice relies on institution building and institutional effects, the most powerful current theories of EU politics are "institutionalist" in nature, bridging the divide between domestic and international politics.
For Stone Sweet, these institutions (principles, norms, rules and procedures, which make up the "judicialization" of policy-making) can themselves be taken as explanatory variables that "organize ongoing normative deliberations that seek to define and redefine the nature of the community" (10). In other words, institutions have the power to "constitute" individuals and construct their preferences to some degree. That is, institutions shape not only strategies, but also goals and norms of behavior, arising, in Stone Sweet's case, from constitutionally binding case law.
Much of the earlier work on EU integration, including neofunctionalism, had claimed that actors could be socialized into EU processes and identities, but did not offer much in the way of testable causal mechanisms. Stone Sweet can thus be commended for giving us a concrete causal model explaining how "judicialization is the process by which legislators absorb the behaviour norms of constitutional adjudication, and the grammar and vocabulary of constitutional law, into those repertoires of reasoning and action that constitute political agency" (204). Thus, when studying the (initially economic) impetus for European unification, Stone Sweet shows how studying the (rational) economic and political interests of member state governments alone is a poor starting point for understanding nature and effects of the emerging European polity.
These same economic interests are at the root of Stone Sweet's second key contribution to the EU literature; namely, his support for a renewed use of neofunctionalism, a neo-neofunctionalism, if you will. Originally, neofunctionalism took taken heavy criticism, because it allegedly postulated an automatic rationality and inevitability to the integration process, without offering falsifiable propositions about when integration might slow down or even reverse, due to political change.
These are heavy allegations, but Stone Sweet's use of neofunctionalism counters these charges quite well, by specifying and demonstrating a normatively-based "rationality" to the process (a community of norms that frames rational action), offering a theory of how this process works (constitutional conflict, leading to delegation to the constitutional court, leading to constitutional decision-making/rule-making, leading to "judicialization"), and carefully assessing the feedback effects of institutional integration on domestic structures: "in today's multi-tiered European polity, the sovereignty of the legislature, and the primacy of national executives, are dead" (193). As the new standard-bearer of EU functionalism, Stone Sweet makes a persuasive case that IR theory cannot explain the "top-down" nature of EU constitutional politics; that is, how initially rational economic preferences turned into a seemingly inexorable process of legal dialogue, "socializing more and more actors-private litigants, judges and politicians-into the system, encouraging more use" (165). Through the vehicle of "rights," the ECJ used the logic of economic integration to enhance its role as dispute resolver. Initially, member state governments had no interest in supranational rights protections: "their purpose was not so much to create rights claims for individuals, as to remove potential sources of distortion within the common market" (171). But to fulfill this "function," rights claims had to be put into action, leading to the process of judicial governance. Looking at member state preferences alone cannot explain this phenomenon, and thus Stone Sweet's supranational functionalism proves superior to the intergovernmentalism of a scholar like Moravcsik.
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The Law of Human Rights
Richard Clayton ,
Hugh Tomlinson ,
Carol George , and
Vina Shukla
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 019826223X |
Book Description
This major new practitioner text provides comprehensive and systematic treatment of human rights law and practice in the UK, including detailed analysis of the impact of the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law by the Human Rights Act 1998. The first section deals with the nature of rights, problems of incorporation, the impact of the Convention prior to incorporation and the interpretation of human rights instruments. The main part of the book consists of a detailed analysis of the rights granted by the Convention, and the effects of their incorporation. Each chapter in this section focuses upon a particular right, and contains a discussion of the pre-existing status of the right in English law, a thorough analysis of the European case law, and full examination of the likely impact of incorporation on English law. This impact is considered in relation to a number of subject areas, including business and commerce, criminal law and justice, education, employment, immigration, media, mental health, police and prisoners. Each chapter has detailed appendices drawing out lessons from the experience under the Canadian Charter and the New Zealand Bill of Rights as well as discussion of the relevant right in other jurisdictions. The book also has a section dealing with remedies and procedure under the Human Rights Act and the procedure for taking cases to the European Court of Human Rights. Regular paperback supplements will be published to keep the book fully up to date with relevant case-law and related legislation as the implementation of the new Act proceeds.
Amazon.com
In his first account of Russia, Lenin's Tomb, David Remnick wrote a history paced like a thriller that recast the common understanding of the last days of the Soviet Empire. While most reporters mouthed the standard lines about the "fall of communism," Remnick delivered a gripping account of how the old order in which gangsters ruled through brutal state power lost its hold on the Russian people. Remnick's stunning reportage cut away the myths of the Soviet system to provide the first account of how Eastern Europeans and former citizens of the Soviet Union had long viewed the Soviet regime. The book won the young author his first Pulitzer Prize.
In his new and equally superb book Resurrection, Remnick offers clear-eyed commentary on how the old order of gangsters has given way to a new order. Russia's power elite, he tells us, has embraced the tools and techniques of markets and electioneering to maintain power, while organized crime is fast becoming a major force in the economy. Remnick also describes how the changes in Russia have effected the people themselves. Heart-wrenching chapters on the war in Chechnya, the health and welfare of children (only 15 percent of school children are classified as healthy, and 50 percent are unfit for military service), and the diminished state of Russian letters and literature chronicle the suffering of a once proud nation as it attempts to rebuild itself. Resurrection makes good on Remnick's name and reputation as the best American writer on Russia today.
Book Description
Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Remnick chronicles the new Russia that emerged from the ash heap of the Soviet Union. From the siege of Parliament to the farcically tilted elections of 1996, from the rubble of Grozny to the grandiose wealth and naked corruption of today's Moscow, Remnick chronicles a society so racked by change that its citizens must daily ask themselves who they are, where they belong, and what they believe in. Remnick composes this panorama out of dozens of finely realized individual portraits. Here is Mikhail Gorbachev, his head still swimming from his plunge from reverence to ridicule. Here is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the half-Jewish anti-Semite who conducts politics as loony performance art. And here is Boris Yeltsin, the tottering populist who is not above stealing elections. In
Resurrection, they become the players in a drama so vast and moving that it deserves comparison with the best reportage of George Orwell and Michael Herr.
"This is what happens when a good writer unleashes eye and ear on a story that moves with the speed of light.
Resurrection has the feel of describing vast, historical change even as it is happening."--Chicago Tribune
Customer Reviews:
not bad.......2006-11-10
I had to get this for school but it's actually kind of interesting.
Freedom in Russia A new era not yet born .......2005-11-24
Remnick gives a detailed portrait of Russian society in the 1990's. He points out how the promised hope of a new era of freedom has been delayed. How instead there is a government of corruption, a new class of superwealthy oligarchs, a market economy which has gone haywire, a persistence of very great poverty for large masses of the people.
In the course of the work he speaks with Russians of all walks of life and presents a picture of a society confused and lost in its own contradictions. The new freedom has exhilarated but has not led to a productive and competent economy, or a fair political system.
Remnick sees the strong absolutist and obscurantist elements in Russian society. In talking to the literary giant Solzhenitzsyn, Remnick does not meet a liberal but rather a true believer who supports an absolutist Russian Orthodox vision of the world.
My friend Moshe Fushman a former citizen of the former Soviet Union says that this is one of the best books on Russia he has read, and compares it favorably to Hedrick Smith's 'The Russians'.
I found it however to be for long stretches quite predictable and prosaic.
Remnick ends up on a positive optimistic note about Russia's democratic future. But from the evidence he presents I would not bet on it.
A spry journey into the bleak whirlwind.......2004-03-15
Compared to "Lenin's Tomb", this book is decidedly less thrilling. For the most part, it is not the author's fault: in "Lenin's Tomb" he got to talk about Lenin, Stalin and Gorbachev, about Sacharov and early Solzhenitsyn, about the Bolshevik coup of 1917 and military/KGB revolt of 1991. Russian history of that period was as rich and colorful as it was bloody and tragic. "Resurrection" is concerned with a much shorter period between 1991 and 1996, and has to deal with Yeltsin, Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov, Russian new rich and new poor, the bleak cultural scene: most subjects in focus dreadfully pathetic. On the other hand, the book itself fails to step up to the base. The numerous portraits of politicians almost completely lack any mention of their program, a surprising choice for a Washington Times correspondent. The fact that the president-parliament confrontation of 1993 was ostensibly provoked by Yeltsin, who unconstitutionally declared the dissolution of parliament, does not merit more than a mention in the book. The common perception of Yeltsin-the-hero-of-'91 is never questioned, even though after his gridlock on Chechnya his ousting of Gorbachev and ascension to Russia's throne looks more like a land grab.
The book's longer chapters betray a slower pace of events. The novelty of the rising curtain was gone and everyone expected the play to begin. The action proved to be underwhelming. 1991: the country is fascinated by Yeltsin, a drinking boor; 1993: a quarter of the country votes for the dimwit Zhirinovsky; 1996: a quarter of the country votes for the dull communist Zyuganov, a xenophobe and anti-Semite who "forgot" about the millions murdered under Stalin, and saw much positive in Stalinism. Then the leader in popularity is general Lebed, an ignorant and renegade guerrilla, and also an anti-Semite. The country is corrupt and criminal beyond belief. It is waging a bloody war in Chechnya where its army is openly murdering civilians. Its leading religious figures, such as Alexander Men, are assassinated. Its renowned writers of the second half of the century, such as Gelman and Bitov, are as lost as their poor country, while the new generation is modeling itself on beacons such as Prigov, whose projects include preparing an edition of Eugene Onegin "replacing all the original adjectives with 'insane' and 'unearthly'". Considering all this, Remnick does not seem to make a case for his hope for Russia's resurrection.
Remnick's language is still as enjoyable as ever and the narrative flows. The book is very much readable and it leaves a lasting impression.
Well Worth It.......2002-04-15
This book bills itself as a history of the past 10 years after the fall of the Soviet Empire, and it does just that. There is no denying that the author, David Remnick is the king of current Russian society structure. The book not only focuses on who has power and what hey are doing with it, but it digs deeper down to the Joe everybody and what it is like to live in a country that continues to fall into lower and lower standards of living. As far as who has the power now, that is a mix of old political cronies and new upstart organized crime figures with a few brave capitalists thrown into the mix.
This is a well thought out and constructed book and keeps you interested. Just when you have had a good dose of heavy economic issues we go to the war in Chechnya, which keeps the pace up. He has peppered the book with interesting interviews and massive dose of good old fashion reporting. You can tell he worked very hard on this book, there is nothing left in the air. Each conclusion or statement is backed up in the writing. You also get the true love he has for the country and the people, the emotion comes through the writing and makes the book more then just a historical report. The writing is very good and challenging, this is not a book you can read and watch TV at the same time, you really need to and want to sink your teeth into it. If you are looking to learn something and enjoy it at the same time then this would be a very good buy.
Excellent.......2001-08-01
This is an excellent book about what took place in Russia during the 1990s. It is perhaps a bit too detailed and focused on personalities a bit too much. But overall, it is an informative read. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about Russian writers. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about the characters who shaped the post-Soviet Russia, and about the character of Russia itself.
Average customer rating:
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A European Welfare State?: European Union Social Policy in Context
Mark Kleinman
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Economic Policy & Development
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ASIN: 0333698924 |
Book Description
Is European integration creating a 'European Welfare State'? Should it be? In this innovative study, Mark Kleinman shows that to understand the controversial social policy role of the European Union, we need to consider the impact of economic integration for both the scope and aims of social policy. This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of the economic and social aspects of European Social Policy, and draws important conclusions for the future of the European Union.
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Origins of the Gulag: The Soviet Prison Camp System, 1917-1934
Michael Jakobson
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0813117968 |
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Comparative Federalism: The European Union and the United States in Comparative Perspective
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0199291101 |
Book Description
The Convention on the Future of Europe served to galvanize debate about the nature and future developmental trajectory of the European Union. More specifically, it engendered discussion over the degree to which the process resembled that which had occurred in Philadelphia some two hundred years earlier, and, more broadly, over the extent to which the European Union does, or should, resemble the United States. Partly as a consequence of such debates, comparative federalism is now an important topic, with scholarly work comparing the US and EU proliferating rapidly. The present volume seeks to build on and contribute to this growing literature, by developing a systematic comparison of the institutions, policies and developmental patterns of the European Union and the United States.
Books:
- Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It
- Working With You is Killing Me: Freeing Yourself from Emotional Traps at Work
- 2003 International Fuel & Gascode (Softbound) (International Fuel Gas Code)
- A Basic Guide To Importing
- A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and The Business Solution for Ending Poverty
- A Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols
- A History of Britain : At the Edge of the World, 3500 B.C.-1603 A.D
- Adjustment Computations: Spatial Data Analysis
- Advanced Industrial Economics
- America's Financial Apocalypse: How to Profit from the Next Great Depression
Books Index
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